Detection of anti-rabies neutralizing antibodies in humans and cattle by a combined tissue culture and enzyme linked immunoassay
Katz, D.; Freeman, E.; Davidson, M.; Abramson, M.; Fuchs, P.
Israel Journal of Veterinary Medicine 53(4): 132-142
1998
ISSN/ISBN: 0334-9152
Accession: 003088855
We have developed a tissue culture neutralization assay based on enzyme immunoassay - NTCEIA, which enables rapid determination of the neutralizing anti-rabies antibody titer of a large number of sera at the same time. The test is performed in plastic microtiter plate and comprises three steps: Neutralization performed in the wells of these plates. The infection step where cells are seeded into the wells to be infected by the non-neutralized virus fraction and the identification step where cells are fixed and the replicating virus is identified by enzyme immunoassay. By omitting the neutralization step, steps 2 and 3 of this test can be used for viral antigen titration. The test is rapid, easy to perform, highly reproducible and shows a good correlation to the standard mouse neutralization test. These features make NTCEIA suitable for large-scale serosurveys. The test can be easily adapted to any animal species and we demonstrate here the advantages of the test in a small-scale study of the efficacy of anti-rabies vaccination in calves and cows.